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DIGITAL ANGEL CORPORATION RECEIVES GOVERNMENT APPROVALS TO OPERATE IN URUGUAY AND CHILE, KEY COMPONENTS OF MERCOSUR COMMON MARKET
Initial Orders of 80,000 Tags Have Been
Received SO. ST. PAUL, MN (December 12, 2005) ... Digital Angel Corporation
(Amex: DOC), an advanced technology company in the field of rapid and
accurate identification, location tracking, and condition monitoring of
high-value assets, announced today that it has received government
approval from Uruguay and Chile to operate in those countries, further
expanding the Company's presence in the rapidly expanding livestock
markets of South America. Digital Angel already has offices in Argentina
and Brazil and there are currently more than 200 million cattle raised in
the region. "These countries are significant not only because they are important
areas for livestock, but also because they are part of the MERCOSUR common
market, a trading block of six countries representing more than two-thirds
of South America's population and a GDP of more than $1 trillion," said
Digital Angel President and CEO Kevin McGrath. The MERCOSUR countries
include Argentina, Brazil, Paraguay, Uruguay, Chile and Bolivia. To date, Digital Angel has sold approximately 30,000 electronic RFID
livestock tags in Chile and nearly 50,000 visual livestock tags in
Uruguay. The Company, which announced last month that it had sold more
than 1.1 million livestock tags in Argentina alone in 2005, including more
than 400,000 in recent weeks, exceeded its sales guidance for all of South
America of 1 million livestock tags sold during the year. McGrath said the new operations in Uruguay and Chile are important
components in the Company's global strategy as well as in its effort to be
the leading tag supplier throughout all of the Americas. The new
operations also complement the Company's existing operations in Argentina
and Brazil, he noted. "South America is an important and rapidly growing livestock market,
which makes these government approvals significant milestones for Digital
Angel," McGrath said. "We have already had a very good year in the region
and the addition of our presence in Uruguay and Chile promises to make the
future that much better. With the move toward traceable beef in the EU,
Japan and the United States, South American beef producing countries
understand the importance of tagging, tracking and identifying their
animals, particularly if they want to sell into the global market, which
is one of the reasons why our products are being so well received. Given
our success to date, we intend to manufacture livestock tags in the region
in 2006." About Digital Angel Corporation Digital Angel Corporation is majority-owned by Applied Digital Inc.
(Nasdaq:ADSX). For more information about Digital Angel, please visit http://www.digitalangelcorp.com/. The statements in this press release that are not strictly
historical, are "forward-looking" statements within the meaning of Section
27A of the Securities Act of 1933 and Section 21E of the Securities
Exchange Act of 1934 and are intended to be covered by the safe harbors
created by these sections. The forward-looking statements are subject to
risks and uncertainties and the actual results that the Company achieves
may differ materially from these forward-looking statements due to such
risks and uncertainties, including, but not limited to, that the Company's
majority stockholder, Applied Digital Inc. owns 55.4% of the Company's
common stock; that new accounting pronouncements may impact the Company's
future results of operation; that the Company may continue to incur
losses, that infringements by third parties on the Company's intellectual
property or development of substantially equivalent proprietary technology
by the Company's competitors could negatively affect the Company's
business; that domestic and foreign government regulation and other
factors could impair the Company's ability to develop and sell the
Company's products in certain markets; that the Company relies on sales to
government contractors of its animal identification products, and any
decline in the demand by these customers for the Company's products could
negatively affect the Company's business; that the Company depends on a
single production arrangement for its patented syringe-injectable
microchips; that the Company depends on principal customers; that the
Company competes with other companies and the products sold by the
Company's competitors could become more popular than the Company's
products or render the Company's products as obsolete; that the Company's
earnings will decline if the Company must write-off goodwill and other
intangible assets; that the exercise of options and warrants outstanding
and available for issuance may adversely affect the market price of the
Company's common stock ;that currency exchange rate fluctuations could
have an adverse effect on the Company's sales and financial results; and
that the Company depends on a small team of senior management and the
Company may have difficulty attracting and retaining additional personnel.
A detailed statement of risks and uncertainties is contained in the
Company's reports to the Securities and Exchange Commission, including in
particular the Company's Form 10-K for the fiscal year ended December 31,
2004. Investors and stockholders are urged to read this document
carefully. The Company can offer no assurances that any projections,
assumptions or forecasts made or discussed in this release will be met,
and investors should understand the risks of investing solely due to such
projections. The Company undertakes no obligation to revise any
forward-looking statements in order to reflect events or circumstances
that may arise after the date of this press release. | |||||||||||||||
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